Romans chapter 13 is where we will be for today's study.

As you're making your way there, let me just use the screen to share a couple of things

about three institutions that God has ordained for human society in this order.

The first institution that he ordained was the family. In Genesis

chapter 2, God established the family almost immediately following the creation of the universe.

And the family is the building block of any functioning civilization. In Genesis 2.24, God said, therefore, man shall leave his father and mother and be joined or

united to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

So family was the first institution that God ordained.

I'm going to skip the second one.

I'll come back to it because it's the topic

of our study today. But in order, number three, he established also the church. The New Testament

Church was established with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. In Ephesians 2.20, it describes the church

as being, quote, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

And here we are today, still a continuation of this valuable body, the body of Christ,

which is spread out now across the world.

So the church is also an institution that God has

ordained for human society. And then the second one backing now into chronological order,

the one we're going to look at today is the government. After the worldwide flood,

God established civil government shortly after Noah and his family disembarked from the Ark.

And the first responsibility given to civil government is found in Genesis 9,6, which says,

whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed.

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